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Here's a way to do it

So a few of us got together a while ago thinking about this and actually came up with a way to do it. Far from perfect but I'd argue that it couldn't be accomplished in some form. Unfortunately it would mean compromise on all fronts, something that thick headed dyed in the wool blockhead football fans on both sides of the border usually aren't capable of.

Feel free to shoot it down, but try to be intelligent and sober when you do it.

Changes to allow for hybrid game:

Field of play:
• Hybrid of the two leagues; overall length to be NFL size at 360 feet, width to be changed to 180 feet, or half of the length.
• Hash marks 65 feet from each sideline
• Goal posts placed and sized to NFL standards behind the end zones.
• Stadiums to have a minimum seating capacity of 45,000 within two years of merger. This would require seating expansion in Calgary, Saskatchewan (Regina), and Winnipeg with the relocation of the Montreal Alouettes to Olympic Stadium. Reduced size of playing field should provide for inward expansion necessary. NFL to fund construction costs.

Scoring and general rules:
• Eleven players per side. Numbering system to follow NFL guidelines for all new players, with existing players being able to continue the use of current numbers until retirement, even after changing teams due to player transactions.
• Single foot in-bounds for legal forward pass reception.
• Four offensive downs to move 10 yards or score.
• CFL style motion allowed for all offensive plays from scrimmage.
• Touchdown worth six points with one or two point convert attempt from two yard line. Point after rules as per regular play except that a defending player may return a blocked, fumbled or intercepted ball to the opposite goal line for a two point score, as per CFL rules.
• Field goal worth three points.
• No point for missed field goal or punt through the end zone.
• Touchback worth two points.
• Eliminate drop kick as legal play.
• No yards format for punting receptions as per CFL rules.
• Kick off as per NFL rules.
• Video replay as per current NFL system, subject to review every three years.

Time keeping:
• Adopt CFL methods including 20 second play clock and clock stopping after every play during final two minutes of play in each half.
• Overtime to CFL version where each team gets a series of offensive plays from the 30 yard line until the score is uneven. In other words, team A scores a field goal but team B scores a touchdown or fails to score on a loss of downs.
• Maximum television time outs to be two minutes

Team alignment:
• CFL teams to join AFC
• Indianapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh to return to NFC as they were pre-AFL/NFL merger.
• Hamilton Tigercats to relocate to Los Angeles and move to NFC. Renaming of team at discretion of ownership. Having an established franchise history may be marketing advantage.
• BC Lions to be re-named through means to be determined by team ownership. Recommend Cougars due to appropriateness of colors and logo.
• All team colors/livery and logos to remain unchanged unless desired by the teams themselves. Recommend Edmonton Eskimos alter helmet color to dark green to avoid confusion with Green Bay Packers or change colors to align with Edmonton Oilers NHL team to aid in recognition and marketing.

Schedule:
• Eighteen game regular season games with two pre-season games.
• Training Camps to commence no earlier than June 15.
• Schedule commences August Long weekend with Friday night Hall of fame game; Sunday, pre-merger NFL teams; Monday, former CFL teams followed by Monday night game featuring established NFL teams TBD.
• Canadian divisional rivals to play on Labor Day and re-match on Canadian Thanksgiving Monday including possible Monday night game.
• Each team plays divisional opponents home and away. Remaining regular season match-ups to be determined based on geography, historical matches etc. with each team playing every other team at least once every five years.
• Playoff teams to be determined as follows: Divisional champions ranked one to four in each conference with four wildcard teams ranked five to eight. Conference quarter- finals take place with one playing eight, two playing seven, three playing six and four playing five. Each conference to play two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Winning teams progress to semi-final one game each on Saturday and Sunday. Conference championship games to be played on following Sunday with indoor games to be played at night and outdoor during the day due to time of year. Superbowl Sunday to follow the college bowl season.

You obviously put a lot of thought into that. But there are quite a few problems with the idea.

First, just in terms of the rules, I highly doubt the NFL would make that many concessions to the CFL's rules. They might consider a few minor changes but nothing major at all.

Second, the NFL would never consider expanding 8 teams at once. No major proffesional sport could realistically do that the way leagues are set up now. It would put a major strain on the talent level. Don't get me wrong, the CFL has some great players and each team has a few players that are capable of being good NFL players but each team would require a minimum of 30-35 players through some kind of an expansion draft. That is 240-280 players.

Third, CFL teams do very well with attendance but the majority of the teams wouldn't be able to consistently support an NFL team.

Fourth, either the current NFL teams would have to agree to split the TV money they get every year with the new Canadian teams. Which is highly unlikely since those teams would really add no new revenue in terms of advertising in the states. Or the CFL teams would have to find a way to earn the revenue themselves in order to compete with the NFL. CFL teams currently do pretty good at their current salary cap level of 4 million. The NFL's salary cap is somewhere around 123 million. They would some how have to increase their revenue 30+ fold. There is no possible way that could happen, unless you want to increase ticket prices to somewhere around $1000 per. How many tickets do you think they would sell then?

So a few of us got together a while ago thinking about this and actually came up with a way to do it. Far from perfect but I'd argue that it couldn't be accomplished in some form. Unfortunately it would mean compromise on all fronts, something that thick headed dyed in the wool blockhead football fans on both sides of the border usually aren't capable of.

Feel free to shoot it down, but try to be intelligent and sober when you do it.

Changes to allow for hybrid game:

Field of play:
• Hybrid of the two leagues; overall length to be NFL size at 360 feet, width to be changed to 180 feet, or half of the length.
• Hash marks 65 feet from each sideline
• Goal posts placed and sized to NFL standards behind the end zones.
• Stadiums to have a minimum seating capacity of 45,000 within two years of merger. This would require seating expansion in Calgary, Saskatchewan (Regina), and Winnipeg with the relocation of the Montreal Alouettes to Olympic Stadium. Reduced size of playing field should provide for inward expansion necessary. NFL to fund construction costs.

Scoring and general rules:
• Eleven players per side. Numbering system to follow NFL guidelines for all new players, with existing players being able to continue the use of current numbers until retirement, even after changing teams due to player transactions.
• Single foot in-bounds for legal forward pass reception.
• Four offensive downs to move 10 yards or score.
• CFL style motion allowed for all offensive plays from scrimmage.
• Touchdown worth six points with one or two point convert attempt from two yard line. Point after rules as per regular play except that a defending player may return a blocked, fumbled or intercepted ball to the opposite goal line for a two point score, as per CFL rules.
• Field goal worth three points.
• No point for missed field goal or punt through the end zone.
• Touchback worth two points.
• Eliminate drop kick as legal play.
• No yards format for punting receptions as per CFL rules.
• Kick off as per NFL rules.
• Video replay as per current NFL system, subject to review every three years.

Time keeping:
• Adopt CFL methods including 20 second play clock and clock stopping after every play during final two minutes of play in each half.
• Overtime to CFL version where each team gets a series of offensive plays from the 30 yard line until the score is uneven. In other words, team A scores a field goal but team B scores a touchdown or fails to score on a loss of downs.
• Maximum television time outs to be two minutes

Team alignment:
• CFL teams to join AFC
• Indianapolis, Cleveland, Pittsburgh to return to NFC as they were pre-AFL/NFL merger.
• Hamilton Tigercats to relocate to Los Angeles and move to NFC. Renaming of team at discretion of ownership. Having an established franchise history may be marketing advantage.
• BC Lions to be re-named through means to be determined by team ownership. Recommend Cougars due to appropriateness of colors and logo.
• All team colors/livery and logos to remain unchanged unless desired by the teams themselves. Recommend Edmonton Eskimos alter helmet color to dark green to avoid confusion with Green Bay Packers or change colors to align with Edmonton Oilers NHL team to aid in recognition and marketing.

Schedule:
• Eighteen game regular season games with two pre-season games.
• Training Camps to commence no earlier than June 15.
• Schedule commences August Long weekend with Friday night Hall of fame game; Sunday, pre-merger NFL teams; Monday, former CFL teams followed by Monday night game featuring established NFL teams TBD.
• Canadian divisional rivals to play on Labor Day and re-match on Canadian Thanksgiving Monday including possible Monday night game.
• Each team plays divisional opponents home and away. Remaining regular season match-ups to be determined based on geography, historical matches etc. with each team playing every other team at least once every five years.
• Playoff teams to be determined as follows: Divisional champions ranked one to four in each conference with four wildcard teams ranked five to eight. Conference quarter- finals take place with one playing eight, two playing seven, three playing six and four playing five. Each conference to play two games on Saturday and two games on Sunday. Winning teams progress to semi-final one game each on Saturday and Sunday. Conference championship games to be played on following Sunday with indoor games to be played at night and outdoor during the day due to time of year. Superbowl Sunday to follow the college bowl season.

You obviously put a lot of thought into that. But there are quite a few problems with the idea.

First, just in terms of the rules, I highly doubt the NFL would make that many concessions to the CFL's rules. They might consider a few minor changes but nothing major at all.

Second, the NFL would never consider expanding 8 teams at once. No major proffesional sport could realistically do that the way leagues are set up now. It would put a major strain on the talent level. Don't get me wrong, the CFL has some great players and each team has a few players that are capable of being good NFL players but each team would require a minimum of 30-35 players through some kind of an expansion draft. That is 240-280 players.

Third, CFL teams do very well with attendance but the majority of the teams wouldn't be able to consistently support an NFL team.

Fourth, either the current NFL teams would have to agree to split the TV money they get every year with the new Canadian teams. Which is highly unlikely since those teams would really add no new revenue in terms of advertising in the states. Or the CFL teams would have to find a way to earn the revenue themselves in order to compete with the NFL. CFL teams currently do pretty good at their current salary cap level of 4 million. The NFL's salary cap is somewhere around 123 million. They would some how have to increase their revenue 30+ fold. There is no possible way that could happen, unless you want to increase ticket prices to somewhere around $1000 per. How many tickets do you think they would sell then?

i think u would need to expand 8 teams at once
cause if u add 1 or 2 teams, u screw up the divisions

many things wrong that id like to bring up.
1. why would the NFL want to merge with the CFL? they are doing fine how they are.
2. talent difference. the CFL teams are a joke compared to the NFL teams. not even trying to insult them, its the truth. the games wouldnt even be competitive until they signed some of our talent.
3. its way too many teams. we would realistically be looking at shutting down most of the teams, and adding only one or two like in that will farrell movie.(lol).

Toronto is really the only viable market...honestly. They have the facitlity and the population. They could support a team, in all other sports that come north TO is the only place where it hasn't left... Van had the Grizzlies, Mont had the Expos... In both American dominated sports CND teams fell to the way side except Toronto.

He didn't move them because they weren't making money, there was a new owner and he wanted to leave, most people in Montreal who watch sports were angry when the Expos left.